I wrote those words on a sign that I placed in the front of the binders the behavioral therapists used during therapy sessions. It was true then and it’s still true now.

Too many people in our society view “autism” as synonymous with “broken.” They expend tremendous amounts of money and energy trying to “fix” them or trying to learn how to “fix” them.

A leg may get broken and, yes, fixing it is a good idea. A person who is different isn’t broken. They’re different.

Those of us who live in the U.S. live in a society that is broken and has been broken since it was founded: All men are created equal. We say it. But too many of us don’t believe. “The Old World” was broken before the U.S. was even founded. Canada and Australia haven’t fared much better than we have. I don’t know of any place that gives more than lip service to the idea that all men are created equal, or better yet that all people are created equal.

We live in a world that is utterly convinced that survival of the fittest is the only way to survive. We’ll give lip service to equality, justice, and the like. But when it comes to hard times the “fittest” are the ones that make the rules and they make them for their own benefit.